Transporting luggage from a vehicle to an airport check-in counter or onto a plane itself or vice versa can be an act in acrobatics. This is especially so for persons travelling individually, such as business travelers. They have to juggle their main piece of luggage along with one or two carry-on items, such as a brief case.
Another attribute of our modern society is that people are often sleep deprived. There is just too much going on in their lives to spend 8 or more hours everyday sleeping. As such, increasing numbers of people rely upon one or more cups of coffee during the day and especially in the morning as a pick-me-up. Of particular popularity are high-end cups of coffee supplied in the ubiquitous Styrofoam™ or paper cups. At times, it seems that there is a different coffee shop on every block enticing us to buy more of this seemingly essential beverage. Many of these shops have drive-throughs so that we don't even have to leave our vehicles. Airport lobbies and concourses also tend to have coffee shops or carts every few hundred feet or so.
Weary and laden air travelers are often burdened with having to juggle their main piece of luggage, an over the shoulder carry-on, a newspaper or book, their ticket and identification as well as their beloved cup of coffee. Furthermore, when traveling with small children travelers must have one or both hands free to hold their children's hands. There is a lack of convenient and suitable means available to facilitate carrying all these items at once without the risk of wholly or partially spilling the coffee.
Several prior art references teach cup holders that are designed for use on a wheeled piece of luggage. US patent application publication 2006/0022006 describes a pouch that hangs from an extended handle of a piece of wheeled luggage. The pouch is suspended from fabric straps that allow it to pivot as the angle of the luggage and handle vary as the unit is wheeled about. The inherent flexibility of the fabric pouch, however, makes any open ended cup particularly susceptible to incidental spillage. Further, the high location of the pouch (near the top of the extended handle) greatly increases the risk that it will be inadvertently knocked by the traveler's leg or arm. Ultimately, this pouch type holder is reliably suitable for only securely closed containers, such as water bottles.
US patent application publication 2006/0037825 describes a more rigid holder that is much more suited to carrying coffee cups than the aforedescribed pouch. Specifically the unit is substantially rigid and includes a mechanism to permit it to pivot between the upwardly extending arms of the handle assembly. This design, however, requires pivoting blocks to be permanently located in the handle arms so it is not readily adaptable to existing luggage but rather intended for luggage configured to use the holder. Further, because the unit relies on fixed mounting locations in the handle arms, it does not offer the user much if any ability to adjust the location of the holder to suit his or her preferences. Finally, the complexity of this holder, as well as several other holders described in the prior art, increase the cost to manufacture and sell such that widespread adoption of the holder is unlikely.